206 



PKOP. P. M. DU2TCAK" OI> THE 



those of Eppelslieim and Heppenheim and of Pikermi. At Eppels- 

 heim sands in small patches are at the top ; and they contain a few 

 specimens of fossil Rodentia, Insectivora, and Carnivora. A con- 

 glomerate is beneath, and contains the Dinotherian remains, and 

 also those of Rhinoceros and Mastodon ; and all are remanie. At 

 the base of the series there is a clay with freshwater shells ; and 

 it rests conformably on a marine limestone ; and this is of late 

 Miocene age. 



At Pikermi the deposit, the bones from which have been so ably 

 described by Gaudry and commented on by W. T. Blanford, rests 

 on a freshwater stratum of Pliocene age, and a Miocene lacustrine 

 series underlies the whole unconformably. 



Now at Sind as at Eppelsheim the underlying marine beds are 

 Upper Miocene in age, and freshwater condition's prevailed subse- 

 quently, during which the osseous remains were depoisted. 



What is the age given to the Dinotherium- conglomerate at Eppels- 

 heim ? Carl Vogt, influenced apparently by the presence of 

 Dinotherium, and regardless of any stratigraphical arguments, and 

 not considering the important changes which had occurred in the 

 area, in the relative level of the land and sea-floor, decided that the 

 overlying freshwater beds are of mid-Tertiary age. But Creclner, 

 dealing with the subject more philosophically, and not being so 

 much impressed with the presence of a genus which elsewhere is 

 represented in Pliocene strata as by the evidence of the considerable 

 mutations which had occurred in the physical geography of the 

 district, and which had brought a marine deposit above the original 

 sea-level, places the bone-bearing conglomerates in the Pliocene age. 

 Thus one geologist associates the land and marine elements together, 

 and the other separates them. 



The comparison which can be instituted between the Manchhar 

 and Sivalik deposits and those at Pikermi is very close ; and, accord- 

 ing to the ordinary rules of stratigraphy, if the osseous remains at 

 the last-mentioned locality overlie Pliocene deposits, the animals 

 which left their bones could not have been of Miocene age. Yet 

 Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins, in his contributions to this Society, asserts 

 that the Pikermi fauna flourished in the Miocene. Evidently there 

 is a great diversity of opinion regarding the age which should be 

 given to land-surface remains overlying marine strata, freshwater 

 and estuarine deposits intervening. And if this subject is studied 

 it will be found that great discrepancies of opinion have existed in 

 regard to similarly placed deposits in many of the great formations. 



About the relative age of some superincumbent terrestrial remains 

 there is no discrepancy of opinion. The Coal-measures are associated 

 with the underlying grits and limestones ; and the land remains of 

 the Inferior Oolite are similarly connected in classification with the 

 marine deposits beneath them. When the lateral extension of the 

 strata can be traced, and distant marine equivalents of the overlying 

 series can be proved to contain fossils representative of or identical 

 with those of the underlying series, the land-surface is classified with 

 the formation in which the marine strata are placed. Or when there is 



